Cambridge Will Test Cannibas For Parquat Contamination

The Cambridge City Council Monday unanimously passed a resolution asking the Cambridge Health and Hospital Commissioner to test all marijuana confiscated by the police for paraquat contamination.

Since 1973, the U.S. has funded the Mexican government's campaign to spray paraquat, a potentially lethal herbicide, on Mexican marijuana fields. The council's resolution aims at evaluating the amount of contaminated marijuana in the Cambridge area.

The council also resolved to ask the City Solicitor to research the legality and feasibility of establishing a public testing service for non-confiscated pot.

The resolution, sponsored by city councillor Alfred E. Vellucci, includes a provision to distribute educational materials about paraquat poisoning to city high schools.

"The council action is good because it will alert people to the danger, but it doesn't get close to the root of the problem, which is that the government is spending millions of tax dollars to poison the very citizens who've paid the tax," Joshua S. Grossman, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, said yesterday.

Grossman said that drug companies in the Boston area are trying to get federal and state permits to begin paraquet testing.

Grossman warned against home paraquet test kits. "There's probably some brilliant Harvard student who thinks he can take it into his own hands--don't trust it," Grossman said.